The fossil that inspired Alien: 300million-year-old relic which designer used to create extra-terrestrials in sci-fi classic

Most of us do not believe in aliens but looking at this strange fossil might just make you stop and think.

This relic is in fact the ancient fossil that inspired the extra-terrestrial antagonists in Ridley Scott's classic sci-fi horror, Alien.

The creator of Alien was Swiss surrealist artist, Hans Rudolf Giger, who was sought out by Ridley Scott to design the creatures after he saw Giger's artwork Necronom IV, one among his many designs that are said to have been based on the fossils.

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Alien abduction: This 300-million-year-old fossil, which inspired the artist who designed the extra-terrestrial antagonist of the Alien films, was stolen and and later returned to a Swiss museum

Mr Giger's designs - one of which was all too memorably seen bursting out of a character's chest on screen - went on to win his team an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects on the 1979 film and the franchise that followed.

But the stranger than fiction fossil is actually the remains of an early form of life that existed on our own planet an incredible 300 million years ago.